In a virtualization environment graphics processing for virtual machine partitions is performed using shared memory in a computing system. Shared memory can be allocated or reserved by virtualizing software (sometimes called a hypervisor or virtual machine monitor) installed on the computer system or by one of the virtual machine partitions (sometimes call a parent partition or root partition). Shared memory used to perform the graphics processing is similar to the memory on a graphics card that can be used in stand-alone computing systems.